Concurrently filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 519,852, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,445 relates to the discovery of the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of manoalide.
The present invention relates to synthetic analogs of manoalide which have been shown to have anti-inflammatory activity in the same range as that of manoalide, i.e., greater than that of indomethacin and less than that of hydrocortisone. Potential uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatic carditis, collagen and/or auto-immune diseases such as myasthenia gravis, allergic diseases, bronchial asthma and ocular and skin inflammatory diseases. These drugs are also likely to be useful as adjuvant therapy associated with organ and tissue transplants and as a local treatment for any venom in which a major constituent is the enzyme phospholipase A.sub.2. Since manoalide blocks oxazolone induced inflammation this compound would be useful in treating forms of allergic contact dermatitis (such as poison oak or poison ivy).
For these reasons, it is believed that the present invention makes a further and significant contribution to the pharmaceutical arts.